Thattu

-Grubbing in Chicago  
Kerala Cuisine in Avondale

Thattu was one of the years most anticipated openings. The Kerala inspired kitchen is the product of a husband and wife team who first started doing pop-ups before finding a space at the now defunct Politan Row. When the West Loop food hall closed, Thattu was left without a home. Chef Margaret Pak and her husband Vinod Kalathil went back to doing pop-ups and that brought them into contact with the people at Guild Row in Avondale. It’s a social club and working space for local creatives ranging from artists to chefs. Pak and her husband hosted a dinner there that left the founders of Guild Row so impressed that they offered up space for Thattu to go full fledged brick and mortar. 

Recently opened in Avondale 

The story of Thattu is actually one that begins when Chef / Owner Margaret Pak left a desk job after a decade plus and started working at Kimski in Bridgeport. She wasn’t just cooking there but also at home where she would prepare the recipes of her mother in law from Kerala. She and her husband Vinod would start to do some pop-ups at spots like Kimski which is where the people from Politan Row found them and offered up a spot. Fast forward all the way to today and they’ve transformed an old warehouse near the Diversey Bowl into a really nice place with lots of light and open space where they also plan to stock regional food products from Kerala and other parts of India. At first they opened just for lunch but dinner was just added as well. If you visit during their lunch hours that means that the ChaaterTots will be an option and whatever you do start with those. Tater tots are not something I would typically order and that goes for all other frozen potato products too but sprinkle some kick ass spicing to them and I’m much more prone to give them a try. I love the Masala fries common at Indian fast food type establishments and I ordered the tots with those in mind but what I got was even better. First off they’re fried fresh to a perfect golden hue and the seasoning really alliances itself in a way that only freshly ground spices can. To top them off they come with a delicious beet ketchup that I really enjoyed even though I typically don’t like ketchup on anything incl. fries. 

ChaaterTots at Thattu 

The KFC chicken sandwich is a great match for the aforementioned ChaaterTots. In this instance KFC does not stand for that bland stuff based out of Kentucky but rather the Kerala Fried Chicken sandwich that goes back to their days at Politan Row. I’m not a big fried chicken sandwich fan but I do still enjoy them every now and then though I would much rather try one like this than the typical / traditional style most spots seem to do. Actually that goes for hot chicken too. I’d much rather have a chicken sandwich with a generous rubbing of spices commonly used in the recipes of Kerala India. Spicy “naked” fried chicken (thigh) is joined by greens, spicy cucumber pickle, and curry leaf aioli on a toasted brioche bun. It’s a lot of fun as far as a fried chicken sandwich goes and it's better than most.

KFC Sandwich 

The food of Kerala consists of many meat options but also lots of veggie options. It has some variety as far as ingredients too with fish and red meat both being popular on top of all the local spices and produce that are produced on India’s southwestern Malabar Coast. Vegetarians will want to peep the Chorum Kariyum which is a vegetarian combo meal consisting of the curry of day served up with two side dishes, rice, pappadum, and a sidecar of rasam (South Indian soup-like dish). Moru was the special during our lunch visit. It’s a yogurt curry made with green plantains that is pretty much unlike any curry I’ve had just based off the fact I’d never had a plantain curry before this. It was light but not like a salad so l liked that as it already comes with a black chickpea salad plus collard greens in a tomato gravy and also the aforementioned pappadam which is a fermented rice pancake of sorts. 

Chorum Kariyum at Thattu 

I saw an Instagram post from Thattu that announced the start of dinner service. With it was a picture of what they deemed to be “the star of the dinner menu” in the Pork Chop Peralan. The pic was really speaking to me in a way that said "get your ass over here for dinner tonight" so that’s what I did (attention restauranteurs: organic social media works). Pork is popular in Kerala where there’s a nice sized Christian community. I searched online and found at least a few different recipes including a few for Pork Peralan. A recipe from the Kerala tourism board uses bite sized pieces of pork butt or the likes that’s generously spiced with Coriander powder and Chilli powder and Turmeric powder among other things including vinegar which leads me to believe there could be a connection to pork vindaloo, a popular dish in Goa due to the arrival of the Portuguese way back when. Here the Pork Peralan is made with a heavily seasoned bone-in pork chop that sits atop a fried yuca cake on a plate of tangy tomato based Peralan gravy. Collard greens come on the side. It was pretty much everything I was hoping it would be which is also how I feel about Thattu as a whole. We got a good one, Chicago. I expect to see Thattu on a few best new restaurant lists when those start to come back around. 

Pork Chop Peralan 

Thattu 
2601 W Fletcher St
Chicago, IL 60618
(773) 754-0199
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